W’s Dueling Diva Covers

July is looking like dueling diva month over at W as Beyoncé and Christina Aguilera are featured on their two covers (and in accompanying editorials) that couldn’t be more different. Beyoncé, styled by Alex White and photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, is depicted in form-fitting high fashion duds that show some skin and are worn with a heavy dose of attitude. Christina, in contrast, is styled by Giovanna Battaglia and photographed by Daniele Duella and Iango Henzi in looks that are less characteristic of her typical public persona. Though she’s featured nude on her cover, it comes off as romantic and demure rather than vulgar.

Forum members are split when it comes to choosing which cover is best. Belle Princesse cast her vote for Beyoncé. She wrote: “So far I like what I see, the cover is awesome. Typical Beyoncé pre-album mass exposure but I love it.”

Urban Stylin was also in Beyoncé’s camp. “I love this… July is the month of the Beyoncé cover!” he declared.

AlonsoJonathan was seduced by the simplicity of Christina’s cover. “I love Christina's cover 10,000 times more than Beyoncé’s,” he wrote. “Beyoncé is just too much! Where Christina's is just PERFECT.”

Justaguy was also more convinced of Christina’s look. “Beyoncé is very pretty but she does nothing for me in print,” he wrote. “She goes through the motions, but there's no sex appeal or charisma… I'm loving Christina's cover!

What do you guys think? Who wins in this W diva cover battle?

Eva Mendes for Thierry Mugler Angel

The team at Thierry Mugler has shaken up the ad campaign for their Angel fragrance by featuring a brunette for a change. Tigerrouge found the change to be a bit confusing. “Over the years, I've become so used to seeing icy blondes in Angel advertisements that a sultry brunette doesn't make sense, much as I love Eva Mendes,” she wrote. Eva Mendes may not have been the most obvious choice for the brand and it’s easy to see why. Nothing about this advertisement works.

“I had such high hopes,” CommanderTMugler posted in disappointment. “A sultry Eva Mendes and Thierry Mugler himself would have been great, but it's the same set up over and over just with a brunette.” The one change they made just wasn’t significant enough to actually make it good.

MyNameIs criticized the ad campaign for its “tackiness overload. So not appealing, not even in a campy kind of way.”

Maybe this would have been a job more fit for Mugler fan Lady Gaga? Even if the ad was tacky with her in it, at least we know she wouldn’t have had a problem getting the campiness down.

Tobey Maguire is a Prada Man?

Forum members were surprised to see actor Tobey Maguire (photographed by David Sims) representing Prada Menswear in the brand’s Fall/Winter 2011 ad campaign.

Ives927 went so far as to call the casting “a tragedy,” while LagerfeldBoy described the campaign as “just a tad bit stale. The collection was so edgy and I wish they'd evoke that here,” he wrote.

Not everyone was opposed to his appearance in the ads. Carmen_kass posted, “WOW I actually really like this. If I didn't know better I would have thought he was a Prada model. As in the type of aesthetic Prada goes for when booking male models.”

MyNameIs fell somewhere in the middle. “This is SO RANDOM. This is like the most random thing ever in the history of randomness,” she laughed. “Seriously it blew my mind when I first read the title. But it doesn't look that bad in all honesty. Typical, brooding Prada.”

ParisFashionMuse made a good point when comparing the ad to other campaigns featuring celebrities. “I actually like this,” she wrote. “He looks like a Prada boy. Tobey totally pulls this campaign off. It doesn't look as star struck as a lot of luxe campaigns like [those featuring] Angelina [Jolie], Rhianna for Gucci etc. It looks like a Prada advertisement, not a Tobey advertisement.”

Prada excels at making unconventional choices when featuring celebrities in their ad campaigns (whether for its menswear or Miu Miu) and this Tobey Maguire campaign just seems like the latest along that same line of thinking. Prada likes to surprise us, and I think that’s a good thing.

TheFashionSpot's Forum Buzz editor, Chrissy Makkas, has been a member and moderator of the tFS forums since early 2005. She regularly reports on hot topics and up-to-the-minute commentary from the forums, and highlights what trendsetting members are shopping for and wearing from week to week in her popular "What We Bought" and "Forum Street Style" features. You can find ChrissyM in the forums here.